Alright, well I've had about four attempts at making chicken parmesan for dinner. They weren't all the bad but I could go for a thicker, dryer crust. I've been coating chicken with flour, then soaked in some eggs, and then with bread crumbs, figuring it would make for a thicker crust. Then I just cook it on a pan with olive oil and throw it in the oven (with tomato sauce and mozz cheese on top). Am I doing something wrong?

Aside from the crust, do you have any suggestions when you make chicken parm?

No matter what you do, cooking the coated chicken in the tomato sauce is going to mush it up a bit. If you want it to stay crispy, then cook the chicken without the tomato sauce, you can still top it with mozza if you wish, and then serve it with the tomato sauce at the table.

__________________

__________________You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. Robin Williams Alix

Location: I live in the Heartland of the United States - Western Kentucky

Posts: 15,162

Another thing you might try is to coat the chicken with panko, Japanese bread crumbs. They're really, really crunchy and make for an awesome coating on everything I've put them on. Look for them in Asian markets.

I buy mine at a place called World Market, which sells all manner of foods from lots of different places.

__________________
"As a girl I had zero interest in the stove." - Julia Child
This is real inspiration. Look what Julia became!

No matter what you do, cooking the coated chicken in the tomato sauce is going to mush it up a bit. If you want it to stay crispy, then cook the chicken without the tomato sauce, you can still top it with mozza if you wish, and then serve it with the tomato sauce at the table.

Bingo! Alix hit the nail on the head with your first reply. no matter what you use for crumbs, if you cook it in sauce after breading, you'll lose the crispness. We always put the gravy on the side.

I agree with not cooking in the sauce. I add sauce and cheese the last 5 minutes a increase to high heat or quickly broil. I heat butter and crushed garlic, and whisk in a little flour and then "marinate" the chicken for 20 minutes or so. Then let rest in equal amounts of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. The flour stiffens up the butter a little and gives the bread crumbs/parmesan a loose batter to stick to. Toasting the bread crumbs helps, but is time-consuming. I brown the chicken and then finish in the oven .

I do something slightly different. I bread and fry my chicken, completely cooking the chicken in the cooking process. I hold my sauce hot, and have hot cooked pasta ready as well. Plate-up is easy. Place pasta on the plate, lay cooked chicken over pasta, ladle some sauce, sprinkle cheese, and run under the broiler for a minute or two just to melt the cheese. Voila!

I definitely agree on baking the breaded chicken without the sauce for most of the time. Usually I'll bake it for 20-25 minutes, then put on the cheese and sauce and bake for another 10 minutes max to melt the cheese and finish cooking the chicken.

For a healthier breading ,I just dip the chicken breast in skim milk and then into the bread crumbs. It won't give you the thicker crust you're looking for, but then again I was looking for a lighter crust ;)

Note when I say "I just dip..." I really mean "my girlfriend introduced me to the idea of..." =)

__________________
If you don't have time to do it right, how can you have time to fix it later?